Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1887-09-09
Wives by the Shipload.

L
curiosities of early Canadian history
about the year 1868 France actually
undertook to supply it's discharged
soldiers and other citizens who had
settled in Canada with wives to or.
der and on a scale beftting its own
msgnifcence Ships were chartered
and consignment made of several
hundreds of demoisselles were ship
ped from the mother land for the
choice and delectation of the sturdy
adventurers who having at length
conquered peace from the fierce Iro-
quis, were now in position to culti-
vate their own assigned acres and sit
down by their own peaceful fresides.
Imagination falters in the attempt to
depict the curiosity and anxiety with
the arrival of the ves-
sci bearing the precious freight would
be awaited by the expectant and ca
ger bachelors, if indeed they were
permitted to know beforehand of the
bene6cient desigus Of the govern
ment or the peculiar form it was
about to assume, What a thrill
must have flashed along the banks of
the St. Lawrence when the advertise
ment was actually published that
large number of candidates for the
matrimonial market had reached the
Canadian shores, and that "such as
had had means of supporting a wife
should have their choice" We can
fancy the excitement as tie avant
couriers charged with the weigbty
news went from village to village
anc from house to house tn spread
the novel announcement. We can
see in the minds eye the liv-
ing streams of pilgrims taking their
rise In the remote huts of the forests
and pouring forth in ever-swelling
volume toward the place of rendez-
vous, as the ancestors of the inhabi-
tants FASTENED forward eager to try
their fortunes, or exulting by antici-
patton in the enjoyment of the proffer-
ed boom.
So far as appears the hundreds of
imported ladies must have stood forth
with unveiled faces and with that
outward semblance OF calm which on
ly women can put on with marvellous
success in the most trying circum-
stances, open to the inspection of the
crowding and excited suitors. What
pen can do justice to the contending
emotions that must have rent their
bosoms as each waited minute after
minute. or hour after hour, tor her
turn to come, or perhaps as she found
berselt forced to decide, in very brief
order, between the conflicting claims
of half dozen eager competitors,
neither of whom she ever saw before.
and in regard to whose previous his
tory and present character she was
wholly in the dark, save 50 far as her
keen woman's instincts might give
her light?
The matches were all arranged
within the short space of less than Is
days from the publication of the ad-
vertisements. The marriage cere-
mony was in each case duly perform
ed, and the wedding gifts were in
order. The governor general him
self undertook the benelicent task, in
the absence of a circle of personal
friends and acquaintance. to be put
under contribution. His gifts were
admirably practical and useful.
They consisted of "oxen, cows, fowls,
salted beef and some money" With
these goodly stores the welded cou-
Piles set out on their homeward Jour
neys, and though regard for histori-
cal truth, or at least verisimilitude,
forbids us to declare of them by
wholesale that they were all "happy
ever AFTER" we may reasonably hope
that a goodly proportion of them at
least were reasonably so, especially
since we must believe that the per-
sonal and social virtues of many an
honest habtant Of the present day
may have come down in direct line of
heridity from pair Of ancestors thus
strangely brought together and sum-
marily welded.